CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It wasn't a near-death experience that convinced Val Warner to get help for her heroin addiction.

It was five of them.

The 33-year-old overdosed five times in the two years she spent addicted to the powerful drug. On one of those occasions, paramedics needed six doses of the overdose reversal drug naloxone to save her life.

Warner, who calls her survival a "miracle," decided that she hated what her life had become. Her relationships with family members suffered, and she lost custody of her 11-year-old son. She decided to seek treatment.

"I was basically using heroin to live," Warner said. "That's not how I wanted my life to end up. I knew I had to get better."

Warner spent the past three-and-a-half months at the Edna House in Cleveland, which offers long-term sober living and education to women in recovery for drug and alcohol addiction. In the days and weeks to come, cleveland.com will chronicle her story, and the stories of other people affected by the opioid scourge in a series called "Recovering Hope."

Warner grew up in a military family. She moved three times as a child because her father and, later, her stepfather were in the U.S. Air Force. She was born in Sandusky but spent time in North Dakota and Texas before settling in Tennessee, where she lived for 19 years.

Throughout her childhood she danced, played softball and was a member of the marching band. She learned to play the clarinet, saxophone and French horn.

It was in Tennessee where she also met a man and had a son, who is now living with his father.

Warner showed an interest in styling hair from an early age when she cut the hair on her Barbie dolls. As an adult, she enrolled in barber and cosmetology schools, and eventually became a stylist at a salon in Port Clinton.

While she did not use drugs early in her life, she started drinking at 18. Over the next dozen years, she drank mainly with her friends or at home after she put her son to sleep. It wasn't until she entered sober living that she realized that drinking was a warning sign of her addictive behavior.

Warner's introduction to opioids came in 2014, when she was 31 years old. She fractured her wrist in a car door. A doctor prescribed her Vicodin to ease the pain while it healed.

Warner soon felt the pills were ineffective, so she took larger doses. When her prescription expired, she bought oxymorphone pills on the street. Eventually, the cost of the oxymorphone became too much, so she switched to cheaper heroin.

The heroin wreaked havoc on her life, and her behavior became erratic. But when her grandparents confronted her about a year after she started using the drug, she denied it.

"I lost everything," she said. "I barely had a place to call home."

Those denials stopped by the time an Erie County Sheriff's deputy arrested her March 12, 2016. Warner said she had a small bag of heroin in the car. She would later plead no contest to a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence, court records show.

Warner's life worsened. She eventually moved out of her grandparents' house to stay with friends. That's when her son moved to Tennessee to stay with his father.

Heroin became the focal point of Warner's life. She neglected her family and work to get high. The drugs also became even more dangerous -- she suspects some of the doses that caused her five overdoses were mixed with more powerful opioids such as fentanyl. The drugs, or a combination of them, are killing people by the hundreds in Ohio communities, and all over the country.

The first time she overdosed, she was using heroin in a car when her lips turned purple. Her head shook and hit the steering wheel. The man she was with checked her pulse and realized she was barely breathing, she said.

"The fact that I survived, to me, is a miracle," she said. "I'm very grateful to be alive."

Eventually, Warner felt like she was surviving solely for the next time she could get high. She had no place to stay, and missed her son. That's when she decided to get sober.

"That's wasn't how I wanted my life to end up," she said.

When Warner decided last summer that she wanted to seek treatment, she approached her paternal uncle Barry Burdue to ask for his advice. Burdue, an alcoholic who has been sober for two years, spoke to friends in the recovery community who recommended the Edna House for Women in Cleveland.

"With family, it can sometimes be hard, because you're so close to it," Burdue said. "But it gave me an appreciation for other families who have loved ones [dealing with addiction]. It was emotional."

When Warner arrived at the Edna House earlier this year, she was "a mess," she said. There were abscesses on her forehead and arm and cellulitis on her leg.

The Edna House staff members and clients who were there when she arrived were immediately concerned for her health, said Linda Gantt, another client.

"She was basically non-functional and manic," Gantt said. "There's a good chance she should've died if she didn't get treatment."

Warner went to the hospital, where doctors diagnosed her with a staph infection. The infection was treated before she returned to Edna House on April 5.

In recovery, Warner confronted the stark reality of what her life had become. Group therapy helped her realize that she was getting high as a stand-in for the love she could have through relationships with her own family and friends. When the drugs eroded those relationships, she used even more often to cope.

Two months into her recovery, Warner also learned that a court granted custody of her son to the boy's father. It was devastating for her, but it provided more motivation to remain sober.

"I know I have to get better not only for myself, but for my son," she said.

Warner said treatment "changed her life" and she is grateful that she's living with other women in recovery. She recently moved into her own bedroom and began the Edna House's job skills development program, which prepares women in recovery to return to work.

She speaks with her uncle every week, and he said she's made notable progress in recovery. He has been in recovery for alcoholism on-and-off for the past 15 years, and he knows firsthand how challenging it can be to maintain sobriety. But he's optimistic for Warner.

"You can see it in her face," Burdue said. "She's healthier. She's establishing a social network. She's taking responsibility. She's remained optimistic."

Warner has also started styling hair again. She specializes in men's haircuts and shorter women's haircuts. She cuts other residents' hair at the Edna House. She's eager to continue with her recovery and return to work.

She's also eager to rebuild her relationships with her family -- particularly her son. If she remains sober the Edna House will soon allow her to keep her own cellphone, and she'll be able to call family members more often.

"I feel very happy for the first time in my life," she said. "When I first got [into sober living], I was a shell. I felt numb, and didn't have any hope for the future. Now I'm excited to wake up every day."

If you are in recovery for opioid addiction, and you would like to share your recovery story, email special@cleveland.com.